Music: Ryan Shupe & the RubberBand: Dream Big
Regular readers of any of my posts know that I’ve complained about the sameness of the music scene today. Every now and then you get some unique sound, but that sound isn’t always…well, good. Fortunately, this is not the case with Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand. I’ve been a fan of these guys for a while. They were a local band in Provo, Utah, where I went to college, and I actually once saw them play in my buddy’s back yard. I remember talking to Ryan Shupe and wondering how they hadn’t hit the national scene yet with their unbelievable live show (and this was just in a guy’s yard) and their one-of-a-kind style. He said they had a few things in the works, and here we are two years later with their first major release.
They will probably (unfairly) be pigeonholed into the country genre because the band includes a banjo, a fiddle, and a mandolin in the mix. It’s not the instruments used, though, but how they’re used that makes Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand unique. Wishing something in your CD collection had a reggae beat and a mandolin? Check out “Rain Falls Down” (track 8). How about a salsa-type song with a banjo? Play “Oh How I Miss You” (track 10). You never know what you’re going to get with this band, but you know it’s going to be good.
Dream Big is Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand’s first release with a major record label (Capitol Nashville), and it contains a few songs that they’ve been playing for a while combined with some new tracks. The album starts off with “Banjo Boy”, a song about a banjo player with major aspirations (“And all the babes will love me, sell out shows/The only problem is I play the banjo”). It’s a song with an infectious flow and lyrics that you have to sing along with.
Catchy tunes abound in the album. “Even Superman” is a love song about how everyone has his weakness; “Dream Big” is pretty much what it sounds like. My personal favorite track is “Simplify”—a grooving song about slowing things down and not worrying. “Ambush” (an instrumental) shows off the band’s great talent and ability to play lots of instruments (there are a total of nine instruments featured on the album).
I can’t urge you enough, if you like any kind of music, to check this album out. You can get the album from Best Buy for 10 bucks right now. If you want, check out Napster or whatever. Download “Banjo Boy” and “Simplify” if you want something representative of the band’s sound. If these guys can’t get you moving, you’ve obviously been fitted with concrete boots. And if you hear they’re coming to your town, go see them. You won’t regret it. They’ve got a lot of material that isn’t on the album (“Go To Hell” is one song that’s great at a live show), and they just have such a good time playing that you can’t help enjoying yourself. If I seem a little over the top about these guys, it's because I am. But know that it takes a lot for any band to get me this excited about their music.
If you don’t have the album, go buy it. Seriously. It’s awesome.
Final Score: 5 cents.
They will probably (unfairly) be pigeonholed into the country genre because the band includes a banjo, a fiddle, and a mandolin in the mix. It’s not the instruments used, though, but how they’re used that makes Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand unique. Wishing something in your CD collection had a reggae beat and a mandolin? Check out “Rain Falls Down” (track 8). How about a salsa-type song with a banjo? Play “Oh How I Miss You” (track 10). You never know what you’re going to get with this band, but you know it’s going to be good.
Dream Big is Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand’s first release with a major record label (Capitol Nashville), and it contains a few songs that they’ve been playing for a while combined with some new tracks. The album starts off with “Banjo Boy”, a song about a banjo player with major aspirations (“And all the babes will love me, sell out shows/The only problem is I play the banjo”). It’s a song with an infectious flow and lyrics that you have to sing along with.
Catchy tunes abound in the album. “Even Superman” is a love song about how everyone has his weakness; “Dream Big” is pretty much what it sounds like. My personal favorite track is “Simplify”—a grooving song about slowing things down and not worrying. “Ambush” (an instrumental) shows off the band’s great talent and ability to play lots of instruments (there are a total of nine instruments featured on the album).
I can’t urge you enough, if you like any kind of music, to check this album out. You can get the album from Best Buy for 10 bucks right now. If you want, check out Napster or whatever. Download “Banjo Boy” and “Simplify” if you want something representative of the band’s sound. If these guys can’t get you moving, you’ve obviously been fitted with concrete boots. And if you hear they’re coming to your town, go see them. You won’t regret it. They’ve got a lot of material that isn’t on the album (“Go To Hell” is one song that’s great at a live show), and they just have such a good time playing that you can’t help enjoying yourself. If I seem a little over the top about these guys, it's because I am. But know that it takes a lot for any band to get me this excited about their music.
If you don’t have the album, go buy it. Seriously. It’s awesome.
Final Score: 5 cents.
Tha Docta's two cents. | 4:49 PM
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